Is the "Development Blog" at the top of this forum the only place where they communicate what they're working on? If so, is it acceptable that they have not communicated since Seble's message in early January? It would seem like they would want to communicate more frequently with paying customers than that, even if it's just to say, "Hey, nothing new yet, but what are you guys thinking we should be looking at?"

Am I off my nut to think that WIS owes us more communication than we're currently receiving?

I respect wildcat's curiosity, but I'm not sure what anyone wants from the developers here. Look at what's going on over at GD - the beta of engine 3 is not exactly winning rave reviews. Sometimes it's best to leave well enough alone.

HD could use better marketing and more human coaches, and the unenforceable 1000-mile rule really needs to be addressed somehow, but from a gameplay perspective there aren't really major problems I can see.

A couple of questions, then. First, what is the "1000-mile rule"? I have only recently started frequenting the forums again, and I've never heard of that. Second, I see gameplay issues on a fairly frequent basis. HD is certainly not uber-realistic, as far as its sim engine is concerned. But even minor tweaking of the game with regards to little things like being able to track ratings over the players career, which should be as simple as making a page that's akin to the statistics page, which does that very thing, would be interesting.

if by periodically, you mean over an irregular period from roughly 6 months to 2 years, usually on the later side, and by fine tuning and tweaking, you mean wreaking havoc... then yes. or if you mean by "things" that randomly seble will fix some obscure issue that comes up, like making international players use the same response as regular players, because he got a complaint that it was insensitive... then yes. but if you mean, do they actually work on the game regularly in an effort to improve it? then thats a big fat NO.

Posted by wildcat98 on 8/6/2013 10:41:00 AM (view original):A couple of questions, then. First, what is the "1000-mile rule"? I have only recently started frequenting the forums again, and I've never heard of that. Second, I see gameplay issues on a fairly frequent basis. HD is certainly not uber-realistic, as far as its sim engine is concerned. But even minor tweaking of the game with regards to little things like being able to track ratings over the players career, which should be as simple as making a page that's akin to the statistics page, which does that very thing, would be interesting.

the 1000 mile rule only pertains to coaches with multiple teams in a world (using multiple IDs). if you have multiple teams, they cannot be within 1000 miles, even if they are in different divisions. there is a lot of contention over this rule, as many long time coaches who always followed the rules had multiple teams in a world for years, in some cases, before seble even took over - and this was sanctioned by the old admin, the game creator. then seble changed the rule without even really telling people, and did nothing to help people get out of these situations, ensuring everybody they shouldnt worry because he wouldnt actively seek people out (only responding to complaints about people doing something wrong). but then people started complaining without any suspicion the coaches were abusing the two teams, and seble started enforcing the rule, without doing anything to gracefully transition people out. many of the coaches affected are the long time upstanding members who basically get screwed, its bullcrap to expect someone who spent years building a program in compliance with the rules, to just abandon it for nothing. basically because seble is so out of touch with the reality of HD, he just has done a terrible job butchering the situation.

i strongly suggest you don't pick up multiple teams in a world, because then you will expose yourself to the whims of roughly a half dozen users and seble, who tend to get their panties in a wad about such things.

i agree, there are huge game play issues. seble literally has no idea how to play this game, or what the impact of his changes were - so honestly, be happy he stopped fixing them. a while back big men didnt score enough, and to fix it, he took big man fg% from roughly 50% to 60%. that is a dramatic enormous change, about 3X the correction that was needed. he eventually scaled down but there are numerous examples of seble responding to feedback by dramatically over compensating, totally butchering the situation, making it worse than it was in the first place. not to be cynical... but thats a pretty widely held view, its not just me, ive mostly been supportive of seblezilla over the years, despite his obvious deficiencies. he just has no idea what its like to play this game competitively - he has teams but they are awful. i think he tried to listen to people early on, and even though he screwed a lot up, i always supported him because of his willingness to work with the community. but now it seems hes been here long enough to think he knows what is going on, which is clearly not that case, and he does a much worse job for it. he still refuses to address d1 recruit generation even though when he changed it, almost a full THIRD of all d1 users dropped their teams, because he butchered it so badly. this outcome was pretty obvious to pretty many users, and we warned him, but it fell on deaf ears...

anyway really your only hope is that another company makes a competing product, because between seble and Fox, its like the blind leading the blind, there is no hope there. the game as it stands is half way decent - and seble actually did have one good patch, his first one, but it was all downhill from there. so i definitely agree with previous posters who said hopefully seble does not start tweaking game play. this game has been riddled with bugs ever since seble rewrote the entire game, to me the best thing he can do is stop breaking things. maybe because d1 recruit gen is so bad, he could address that. note that i have had 0 problems in d1 myself and actually enjoy the new recruit generation for mid majors personally, as do a few other very successful coaches, but its just horrible for the community at large. and i hate the recruit generation changes for high d1, its just retarded (even though i still did fine in that setting - this complaint is not based on personal struggles, but just because the system works for some of the most successful coaches, doesnt mean anything). im just pointing this out because while my complaint about the multiple teams thing is personal - i had to move teams picked up in compliance with the rule, with no help from seble - at which point i dropped all my teams - the other changes he made are not personal. they were bad for the game but mostly i have not been that affected by those things.

if by periodically, you mean over an irregular period from roughly 6 months to 2 years, usually on the later side, and by fine tuning and tweaking, you mean wreaking havoc... then yes. or if you mean by "things" that randomly seble will fix some obscure issue that comes up, like making international players use the same response as regular players, because he got a complaint that it was insensitive... then yes. but if you mean, do they actually work on the game regularly in an effort to improve it? then thats a big fat NO.

That's really too bad. I'd been getting that sense, as the CS response to the few tickets I have opened over the years has ranged from fairly dismissive to downright impolite. That's really too bad, since this game has a TON of potential to be great.

Can you shed any light on the "1000-mile rule" that was mentioned earlier? Never mind, answered it as I was typing this reply.

it does have a ton of potential, i think this game appeals to such a larger user base, its really just pathetically mismanaged. i was HD's biggest fan for a long time but its tough to stay that way when it seems like all the owners do is try to run it into the ground.

Posted by gillispie1 on 8/6/2013 11:47:00 AM (view original):it does have a ton of potential, i think this game appeals to such a larger user base, its really just pathetically mismanaged. i was HD's biggest fan for a long time but its tough to stay that way when it seems like all the owners do is try to run it into the ground.

I wonder if they just think of GD as such a "cash cow" for them that they just can't spare even a couple of programmers to focus full-time on HD? It's really shocking to me that Seble hasn't even bothered to put anything on that developer's thread in 7 or 8 months.

Perhaps we can use this thread as a "Clearinghouse" for suggested improvements. It sounds like Gillispie has a lot of thoughts on that front, and I'm sure others do as well. I'm not quite ready to just give up on the game yet.

Posted by shawnfucious on 8/6/2013 11:51:00 AM (view original):the more I learn about HD the more I like it. no need to change anything. then again im sure most of you know more than me about it to begin with.

it really is a great concept and a great game. its the management and administration that is so bad. really ive always said that i felt HD as is, with all its problems, could be 10-100 times more successful just if it wasnt mismanaged from a business standpoint. as a newer user, its easy to overlook those things - for my first 2 years i was totally obsessed with this game, i literally used to game plan for 20 minutes a game for all competitive games i had on my 2 main teams, for like, well over a year there. i cant say i was literally HDs biggest fan, no way of knowing that, but i was a huge fan and was totally infatuated with the strategy and trying to fully master the sim engine, what compositions of players worked best and how to maximize their effectiveness through team setup and game planning. i got burnt out from spending so much time, but would have happily went on playing with way less effort on each team for a long time, if they didnt just keep screwing things up. hopefully you can keep enjoying the game without those other things getting in the way, like they did for me...